


Friendly Face

by alidiabin



Category: Bomb Girls
Genre: Gen, Implied Abortion, Miscarriage, post ep
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-01-23
Updated: 2013-01-23
Packaged: 2017-11-26 12:57:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,318
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/650758
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/alidiabin/pseuds/alidiabin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Vera visits Lorna in the hosptial, post ep for 2x02. They search for comfort and hope.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Friendly Face

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first work in the fandom ,eep. Please do point out if that characters aren't written right or if something is off.

The hospital smells like disinfectant, and oddly enough Vera finds it comforting. She spent so long here that it almost smells like home. She is also reminded of Archie, and even though it still sort of hurts to think of him, a smile still crosses her face at their smoke breaks and card games. She is not here for Archie though or even herself, she is here for Lorna. Lorna who probably doesn’t even want her there, but needs her, because she needs someone in her court, someone who has been there.  Vera walks down the bleach-scented hall and toward Lorna’s room. Vera stood outside for a second, pausing to look into the window, Shelia the ever diligent daughter as dabbing Lorna’s head silently.

Vera wondered how much Shelia knew. Shelia always wanted to see the very best in people, so she probably had assumed that the baby had been a late-in-life baby, a product of her parent’s infrequent relations. Vera had never processed such innocence; she had seen the look on Marco’s face whenever she asked about Lorna, when he visited. Vera had seen the tension in Lorna’s face when they visited the woman on Chestnut Street, trying desperately to keep up the pretence that they were visiting on behalf of one of the girls on the factory floor.

“Vera,” Shelia uttered as Vera entered the room, she put the wet cloth down and stood up in surprise.

“The girls at VicMu think that you ate some bad meat,” Vera uttered, as she took Shelia’s now vacant seat, “Harold wanted me to buy you flowers, but I told him you’d prefer something more useful.”

“I guess that’s right,” Shelia uttered with a slight smile on her face. “Mum doesn’t care for such frivolity,”

“Shelia your shift finished hours ago,” Lorna uttered slowly, pausing over each word.

“You shouldn’t be alone,” Shelia protested, musing at how quickly their roles had been reverse, with Shelia as the caretaker.

“She won’t be,” Vera uttered as she leaned her feet on the end of the bed. “I don’t have anywhere to be,”

“That’s right, Vera will keep me company,” Lorna whispered, even though she was hoping for some time alone, to gather her thoughts.

“Lord knows, I’d be the right gal for the job,” Vera replied, “I spent enough time here, I know how boring it is here,”

“Mums stay will be shorter,” Shelia whispered

“I should hope so,” Vera replied, “Your mums a strong woman, but even she’d go crazy if she were here for too long,”

“I will be fine,” Lorna whispered, as Shelia gave her a goodnight kiss, “Can you make sure Dad eats something, and doesn’t wash it down with whiskey.”

“Edith brought casserole over,” Shelia reported as she moved slowly toward the door. Vera noticed the scowl in Lorna’s face, and smirked a little. She really had not expected Lorna to resort to such an expression, nor had she suspected Lorna to be jealous of a humble casserole.

“You should sneak some in,” Vera called out just as Shelia was leaving, “You wouldn’t want your mother eating those things you call Beets,”

“That’s right. I will see what we can do about a slight change in menu,” Shelia uttered as she opened the door, “Night,”

“Night,” Lorna whispered as the door closed, and the mask began to slip. Lorna let out a deep breath and rubbed her face, her eyes looked close to tears. She told herself she had cried enough, but still the tears kept coming.

“What have I done?” she whispered, as her eyes glassed over, she shook her head.

Vera’s hand reached out to comfort Lorna. She had been in a similar dark hole as Lorna, and she knew that you needed someone to help you out, even if was only part of the way.

“Don’t,” Lorna declared turning away, “I don’t deserve comfort,”

“Yes, you do,” Vera replied, as she took Lorna’s hand and rubbed it, “Those herbs are usually quicker than that, maybe you were too far gone, or maybe it was because you’d have babies before”

“It wasn’t the herbs,” Lorna reported as she looked down to her now-empty stomach, “I could not take them,”

“Because you’ve had babies before,” Vera asked as she remembered the time she had taken those herbs. She remembered the bitter taste, the agonizing pain and the scarlet red colour of the blood that came from her for days afterward. She had never had children before, the baby had been an abstract thing, so it had not seemed real. But, Lorna would know exactly what it would entail, know what each movement meant.

“I felt it move,” Lorna reported, as she remembered sitting at the dinner table with those herbs in front of her, she remembered the flutters, just as strong as the other children’s.  “And it was just like before, like with Shelia or the twins. I couldn’t.  Bob did not believe me when I told him it was his, he kicked me out”

“It was Marco’s, wasn’t it?” Vera whispered, though she had put two and two together before, she needed conformation.  Lorna nodded.

“He asked me to keep it safe, to get a safer job away from all the chemicals,” Lorna whispered as the tears finally fell. “I failed. It happened on the factory floor, right where I said I’d keep away from. ”

“I might not have been the chemicals,” Vera said hardly convincing anyone.

“And that’s not the worst thing, when I woke up I felt relief.” Lorna reported as a sob finally escaped her, “I was relieved that no-one else would have to find out,”

“That’s normal,” Vera whispered, as she remembered seeing her blood stained panties and thanking whoever was up above, that the thing inside her was gone. “Then you start to think of it like a baby, you think about the ten fingers and the ten toes,”

“And the little baby curls. And the smell,” Lorna whispered, she’d had three babies, she knew what they were like, a tiny part of her wanted that again, even though she was far too old for it.

“Then you remind yourself that you could never raise a kid by yourself, and that if you had to give it to someone else to raise it would have broken you,” Vera whispered as tears formed in her good eye, “You have to tell yourself that what happened was for the best,”

“I used to lecture you girls about being responsible,” Lorna whispered, remembering that silly pamphlet she had published, “And now look at me, cheating on my husband, considering abortion. How are you girls supposed to respect me when I lead that sort of example?”

“Lorna,” Vera declared, “A lot of us respect you and look up to you. You are a good example, especially to the ones who husbands are out there. A lot of women would have run a mile if their husbands came back all broken and crippled, yet you stayed. It also gives me a little bit of hope,”

“You don’t need hope,” Lorna replied, “You’re doing fine. Look at you up in that office it was like you were made for the job,”

“I know,” Vera replied, even though she did not really believe she was made for the job, “But hope, well it sure is nice to have even if you don’t need it,”

“Think you could help me find some,” Lorna whispered, “I have a marriage to fix, and a husband who needs to forgive me,”

“That doesn’t just need hope,” Vera answered, “It needs time,”

“Time,” Lorna repeated, “It doesn’t heal all wounds,”

“Speaking of time,” Vera uttered as the wards matron circled around the room, “I think it’s time for me to go,”

Vera left quietly and Lorna settled into an uneasy sleep, though it was the first sleep without tears proceeding it.

 

 


End file.
